DRIVE TO THE HOOP
By Cameron Fitz 1
DAVID MOORE
coach, father, husband. role model
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he key is struck into the ignition and turned to start the car. The journey begins. It is a trip from San Jose to East Palo Alto for the young David Moore, otherwise referred to in the basketball world as D Mo. “I be crying everyday. Like I don’t care, I cry everyday. I cry everyday in the car,” said the Skills and Development Trainer for Team Esface Basketball Academy.
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He continued by elaborating on the love and appreciation he has for all of his athletes. D Mo lives for caring for the youth and works to develop and transform them into basketball players as well as respectable, hard working individuals. The players develop from little “Hunabunudaes; little babies, little cakies,” (Moore) as they say in Hawaii, to mature and hard working young men and women.
The people that are around D Mo make him who he is. In the interview I conducted, it was nearly impossible for me to get information out of D Mo about himself, because he loves talking about other people and how the interactions he has affects him. One of the more notable stories he shared was triggered by asking the question, “What has been your highest high and lowest low with Esface?” Immediately
after asking the question, D Mo portrayed to me a look of anguish and said, “MAN! Man that’s hard” because he felt that there isn’t just one moment, one story that deserves the epitomized title of the “highest high.” The contemplative look remained on his face for a few short seconds before his eyes widened, posture straightened, and mouth opened. The story he desired to tell popped into his head, but he assured me that this story isn’t a highest high, it’s more like a “juicy moment” (Moore). D Mo starts his story talking about one of his “12U big men,” Calvin, who is also a member of the highest level of choir at his school. This kid is currently a little over six feet tall, projected to be seven feet tall, and D Mo explains how he feels insecure calling him into huddles. At one of their tournaments last year, D Mo just wasn’t in a good place and Calvin took notice of his coach’s mood. Calvin asked, “Coach are you alright?” And D Mo answered, “Calvin, sit down right here.
You know Calvin I am really going through some stuff.” D Mo paused and said, “Sing for me.” There were no expectations for this shy, quiet player to even think about singing. When recounting the story to me in the interview D Mo said, “And this dude opens his mouth and it’s like, it’s like the highest pitch, the nicest voice and was like, ‘ahhhhhh.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god, Calvin. That was the truth!’And he sang for me and he was like the biggest angel I ever saw. The biggest kid angel. And he got up and he just walked away. I don’t know why, but I will never forget that moment. It hit my heart. It made me feel so good” (Moore). One of the teachable moments D Mo learned from this occurrence is that “these kids, they’re not just learning how to be better players, they are learning how to open up their hearts and learning how to step out of their comfort zone for the sake of someone else’s heart, for the sake of making someone else feel better” (Moore). D Mo proceeded by explaining how
heartwarming it was to know how wise and selfless his players and trainees are. D Mo was born and raised in Hawaii and remains very proud of his background as a youth. One of the many quotable and recountable stories D Mo shared with me included his experience with developing himself as a young basketball player. In Hawaii, there wasn’t much competition. It wasn’t like how it is in the the Bay Area where it is largely populated and all of the children play sports. D Mo delved into the differences between being raised in Hawaii to how the children he works
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with and his own children are being raised, currently, in the Bay Area. The opportunities were not the same as they are today. He played barefoot on a court with scorching pavement that burned his feet and would toss a volleyball into the net as a
basketball substitute. Although the competition was never there for D Mo to develop himself as a player, the Ohana was always there, which is the greatest
University, but after a short stint in college, just shy of turning twenty, he moved to California for an undisclosed reason. In the process of explaining his move, he says,“...then I came out here [to California] and switched, I actually found my purpose in life, and that was to help the youth and develop the future” (Moore). Shortly a f t e r relocating to California, D Mo met OlaDele a n d O l a Tu n d e Sobomehin, h i s new Ohana. At the time, Dele and Tunde were designing a clothing company called Esface, which stands for, Education Service through Fashion Athletics Community Entertainment. Over the years, the clothing
“I actually found my purpose in life, and that was to help the youth and develop the future” -D Mo value of the Hawaiian culture. D Mo attended Kalaheo High School where he earned titles such as “Fab 15 as a Senior in High School in the State of Hawaii (2005)” and “OIA Defensive Player of the Year (2005)” (Henry). He intended to play basketball at Hawaii Pacific
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company has morphed into the training of basketball players through Team Esface Basketball Academy. On the Team Esface Website, the following is written about D Mo: “Team Esface recognized incredible talent, admired his competitiveness and steady desire to improve
and decided to invest in Coach D-Mo, as the next great Team Esface trainer” (Henry). Esface having been built on the ideals focusing on the mind, the body, and the skillset, D Mo works mainly on developing the skills of the players in the program. Ohana has endured with him from the Islands of Hawaii to the Bay Area where it continues to be a strong value for D Mo that he has helped transcend onto Team Esface’s program. Although D Mo has his own 12U team and high school team, he is notoriously known best for his developmental program, Phenom Prep. Not just any player in the program can subscribe to these grueling workouts. D Mo handpicks and invites players from all over to grind in these sessions. Throughout the workouts, “participants are introduced in each session to a variety of high-intensity and highly creative drills that ‘prepare young Phenom ballers for every situation they might encounter on the basketball court”’ (Henry). One of the 15U players attends Phenom Prep, Kiran Kruse, explained how, “D Mo wants you attacking your weaknesses” and that “he’s gonna help you out and make sure that you’re getting to be the best you can be...he’s going to try and push you up until your limits and he’s going to try and stretch them” (Kruse). During the interview, D Mo’s face was so bright with happiness after sharing the story about Calvin singing to him. Then, in less
than half a second, his emotions morphed. He transformed from bright and sunny to grey and stormy. D Mo realized that he had yet to answer the second part of the question concerning his lowest low. Based on the drastic change of expression, I knew that there was something considerable forthcoming. He looked at me with immense hurt in his eyes and said, “We just found out one of our kids has leukemia. You know and he is only twelve years old.” He paused briefly after this statement. D Mo continued by explaining how he has been doing research to fathom why so many people are being diagnosed with leukemia. Moments later, he peered off to the the side and cracked a subtle smirk. D Mo said, “... he makes everyone around him feel more lively.” This player would hit a three and then start dancing on the court and D Mo would have to tell him to run and get
back on defense. A couple of members from the Staff at Team Esface, including D Mo, went to visit their young hoopster in the hospital. They would drive in to play video games and chat with him, but he just didn’t possess the same lively, animated spirit they were accustomed to witnessing on court. D Mo looked down at the ground and then back up at me and said, “The, the fact that he couldn’t have that energy was one of the lowest lows, seeing
that. Seeing a guy that got more energy than me, the fact that he didn’t have that, hurt me and hurt the staff. We were all there at the hospital and saw him. That was very a low point, the fact that this can be taken away” (Moore). The situation surrounding this young player exhibits the familial values of D Mo and the staff. The relationships that have been kindled through Esface are cultivated from “...your ability to make an emotional connection with people so that both lift each other is paramount. It must become a partnership where there is synergism on both sides” (Burson 1 3 8 ) . Everyone within t h e
program is so incredibly tight knit and unified no matter your age, race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Team Esface is a family. Ohana. And they all have a mutual understanding that “everyday is not granted and every dribble we take, every speech we have, we have to make something of it. Everyday in the office, everyday on the court, we have to make something of every situation, every minute of this day, everyday” (Moore). As we neared the conclusion of the interview, I asked D Mo what he planned to do for the future. This question was a game changer, as in his mood went from zero to sixty faster than a 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder. Immediately, he started to ramble on about endless possibilities. The one true dream that D Mo has for the future, which he claims to dream about every night, is the evolution of Team Esface Basketball Academy. D Mo wishes for Esface to become an all encompassing school for academics and basketball. It was clearly evident that he has thought about this considerably, because he described what each staff member’s role in the Esface Academy would look like, as well as the desired outcomes for the student/athletes. With the goal clearly defined, the future awaits. With Ohana, D Mo possesses the keys to ignite the engines of the Team Esface dream; to transform the vision into the truth. 5